Being a Stepdad

by Doug McIntire

After three-plus years of being a stepdad, you tend to learn a few things. For me, I’ve learned that mom isn’t so good at math, which makes my arrival in the family both timely and fortuitous. But more importantly, I’ve learned how much a twelve-year-old can sneak in to steal your heart when you aren’t looking. It only took a slip on the parallel bars in gym class, followed by a broken nose, and my rush to get to the school to see how she was for me to realize that she had slipped in when I wasn’t looking and had latched onto me in ways that I couldn’t foresee. Now that the surgery to reset her nose is over and she’s sitting on the couch watching movies, her nose bandaged in a splint to prevent it from moving, it still tugs my heart strings to know she’s hurting and there’s really nothing I can do about it. So I get her ice cream, and take her pillows and blankets, and hope that I’ll be there the next time she falls, hopefully to keep her from hurting herself, but at least to help her dust herself off.

6S

Doug McIntire likes to write a lot but enjoys time with his family more.